


Desecration and Lies

by Palefire73



Series: Loki Origins [29]
Category: Frigga - Fandom, Loki - Fandom, Marvel, Norse Gods - Fandom
Genre: Frigga Lies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 04:32:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palefire73/pseuds/Palefire73
Summary: Frigga is concerned that Loki's bad reaction to the Asgardian Greenbell may become public knowledge and perhaps lead to his exposure as a Jotúnn. In her desperation to keep his true identity a secret, she does something which goes against her grain.





	Desecration and Lies

Frigga, Odin All Father’s wife and Queen of Asgard, had a dilemma. Just a few weeks ago her second foster son, Loki, had fallen incredibly ill after ingesting part of a very pretty little plant called an Asgardian Greenbell. It had been done innocently enough: Frigga had been taking her sons for a walk through the extensive woods in the Palace grounds and while Tyr and Thor were messing around climbing trees, she was teaching Loki a bit about herb lore. Unfortunately, she had not known just how enthusiastic the youngster would be about learning the various properties of the plants in the woodland and she had set off by showing him harmless examples, allowing him to touch them and even to taste them so he could learn their flavours along with their various benefits. She had been a little distracted by trying to keep an eye on Tyr and Thor’s rather more daring pursuits and thus had not been quick enough to prevent Loki picking off a part of the dainty little plant he had just come across and putting it straight in his mouth.

 

The consequences had been terrible. Although the Greenbell was completely harmless to most races and animals, it was a deadly poison to Jotúnns and a few other unfortunates. The chances of Loki ever finding this plant and eating it would ordinarily have been extremely low and it was simply an awful coincidence that he happened to be next to it while she was distracted. He had fallen incredibly ill within scant minutes and even after receiving the very best treatment back at the Palace, his death had been fast in its inevitable approach. Frigga had worked tirelessly with Eir in the Royal Healing Room, but had reluctantly resigned herself to having to watch this enigmatic little three year old leave the known worlds to embark upon his journey in the next life. She and Eir were discussing turning the Soul Forge off when Thor had appeared and then her world had been turned upside down.

 

Thor had been devastated at the idea that his beloved younger brother – a brother he had been unwilling to accept and had been jealous of upon his first arrival – could be on the brink of death. He had become very angry very quickly and had insisted that something better be done in order to save him. As Frigga and the healers had looked on, Thor had unwittingly harnessed the power of the storm and had somehow overloaded the Forge with magical energy, bringing Loki back from the jaws of death. It had taken many long days for the little boy to finally regain consciousness and Thor and Tyr had been there when he had opened his eyes and exclaimed “Where am I?”

 

Yet, that had been a few weeks ago now, and Loki was well on his way to a complete recovery. It had not been greatly apparent to most of his visitors in the healing rooms, but the acutely observant Queen, with her enhanced Sight, had been very worried about what that innocuous woodland river plant had done to her son. It was his eyes that concerned her… the colour was washed out of them, leaving only a very pale straw colour in the irises. Because Loki was still in the Forge and enveloped by the mists – which varied in colour – the colour change did not stand out clearly because the blue his eyes usually were was pale anyway, but Frigga saw it clear as day. She had gone to the Great Library of Asgard, which was housed within the Palace, and had researched that plant until late into the night. It was frustrating work: it seemed the plant was not really that interesting to botanists aside from its lethality towards Jotúnns, and was only afforded a paragraph or two in a few of the more detailed records. In the rest of the botanical books it was usually only listed as a matter of course, along with a sketch to show what it looked like. In the only book whose author had made an attempt to look into the plant more closely, there was a little more detail about its flavour and what effects the plant had on a Jotúnn should one be unfortunate enough to eat it and Frigga had read about them with great sadness – and relief. As Loki’s eyes had regained their blue colour – which Frigga was convinced was related to his magical abilities – she knew that inside him his body was having to basically repair every organ, every muscle and every sinew that had been so terribly damaged by the toxic effects of the plant he had so innocently bitten into.

 

And now she faced her dilemma. Obviously this incident had raised many questions, such as what was it that Loki had done to get into such a terrible state? Of course, Eir, Odin and Fulla were aware of the truth of the situation because they knew of Loki’s true physiology, but no one else did. Palace gossip was as rife about the mysterious illness of the little Prince of Asgard as it was about any other interesting subject and the King and Queen knew they were running out of time to present a believable tale to their citizens – and to Tyr and Thor. As far as Frigga was concerned there were exceptionally few options open to them and the one she felt was the strongest was the one she also disliked the most. Everyone knew they had been walking in the woods, everyone knew Loki had eaten something dangerous and she felt it would not be long until someone might get too interested and somehow stumble upon the truth… perhaps even Loki himself. She had to do something about it and she had to do something quickly. She voiced her idea to Odin, who mulled upon it for a while before proclaiming that he did not know of any better way to turn the situation around, and so the beautiful Queen of Asgard was now in the Great Library in the dead of night, about to do something that sickened her.

 

Frigga was a great believer in knowledge and its acquisition. She was a curious person and loved to read widely about a variety of subjects. She encouraged this in her children and they could often be found in the part of the library given over to the younger members of society where they could read or play or have story time. Yet tonight there was to be no story time. Frigga methodically retrieved every book she had managed to find a reference to Asgardian Greenbell in and laid them out on a huge reading table, where she opened them all to the begrudging mention or diagram. Fortunately there were not very many of them and it did not take her long to complete this part of her task. And then she began to concentrate, with her head bowed slightly and her eyes, although open, seeing nothing. She allowed her mind to reach out and to sense the words on the pages of the books laid out before her, noting the ink of the individual letters and how it had sunk into the fibres of the paper in order to create the text which would be read by anyone interested enough to look. As she became one with the field of knowledge spread on the table, she gently began to manipulate that very ink with her golden Seidr, encouraging it into new shapes, forming new letters in a different order than before. Frigga was changing the knowledge set down in the educational tomes she had plucked from the library shelves, changing it to suit her needs. As the ink settled into the paper in its new form and Frigga’s sense of the altered information matched her requirements, she slowly withdrew the magical light of her golden Seidr and became of her surroundings again. She was exhausted and only just had the strength to close each book before she sat down heavily in a reading chair to catch her breath, while she thought ashamedly about how she had just altered fundamental knowledge which would now be taken to be the truth.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Here you are, Loki, try this colour.” Frigga smiled at her son’s eager grin as he took a pale green pencil crayon from her to use to complete his drawing. He was such a beautiful child, clearly mimicking the more attractive features of each of the important people around him, even though he was possibly not conscious of doing so. He had Odin’s serious features when concentrating, Thor’s impossibly clear blue eyes, Tyr’s rich golden-brown hair and Frigga’s captivating smile. The Queen watched with delight as he finished colouring in the picture, which showed a bunch of flowers he had gathered on their morning walk and then he took up a different pencil to start to try to write their names beside them.

“Let us see…” Mused Frigga, “we have the Giant Asgardian Bull Reed, so… G… I… A…”

Loki carefully made the markings on the paper which were very good attempts at the Asgardian letters. Even though his handwriting was a bit spidery, it was very good for his age. With Frigga’s help in spelling, he soon had most of the names of the plants written next to his pictures of them.

“What is this one, Móðir?” He asked, pointing to one which had long thin leaves from the base of a single stalk which bore an inflorescence of pale green bell-shaped flowers.

“Ahh…” said Frigga, “Do you not remember this flower, little one? Did you not notice that I did not allow you to pick and to carry it this time?”

“Oh! It is the Greenbell!” Exclaimed Loki. His face grew serious and he intoned his words in a lower voice than usual: “The Asgardian Greenbell grows along the banks of streams and rivers deep within the woodland of Asgard. It is harmless to most, but kills Jotúnns if they ingest it.” He looked up at her to see if he had remembered his facts correctly.

“That is not all, Loki. I am quite sure there must be more to it than that. It is such a pretty little thing and surely it cannot be in the Nine solely to kill Jotúnns?! Come, let us find more information about it.” Frigga stood up from the table they were sitting at in the Great Library and waggled the fingers of her outstretched hand, “Come, Loki. Let us look at the botanical reference books.”

 

Within ten minutes, Frigga and Loki were making their way back from the endless shelves with a pile of books and Loki eagerly opened the first one as the got back to their table. He skipped through the pages to get to the one bearing a picture and description of the Greenbell, and it was not long before he had read everything there was to know about it. Including just how it could be dangerous to other people too. As he read about ‘repeated exposure’, ‘genetic pre-disposition’ and other very complicated theories on why Greenbell could, in very rare circumstances, harm Asgardians too, something clicked in his young mind.

“Was this what I nearly died of, Móðir? From eating Greenbell near the river?”

Frigga’s voice caught in her throat and she nodded as tears formed in her eyes at the memory of just how ill he had been and how the thought of losing him had made her feel. “Yes, Loki,” she smiled and hugged him close, “Yes, you were nearly taken from us. That is why I did not allow you to touch the plant again.” She moved so that they were sitting face to face and she stroked his smooth cheek. “Promise me this, Loki. Never, ever, touch Greenbell again. Avoid it at all costs. It must simply be that you are sensitive to it in some way, such as is described in these books.” She sniffed and wiped the errant tears away with a cream embroidered handkerchief.

“Do not worry, Móðir,” said Loki softly and he reached out to hug her tightly in his small arms. “I will never touch the plant again, ever.”

“Perhaps it might be wise not to tell others about this,” Mused Frigga, unknowingly complicating the lie she was building around Loki’s avoidance of the Greenbell. “There are some people who might use it to their advantage if they thought a powerful King could be felled by simply putting an extract from this plant in his drink!” The idea sank into Loki’s brain and he pulled back from her with yet another serious look on his face.

“We cannot jeopardise the future of Asgard!” He exclaimed, “Only the healers are to learn of this!” Frigga nodded at his stoic little face in agreement.

“As you wish, my Prince. Now, let us tidy the books away before we leave.”

 

The Queen and her son placed the books back on their various shelves within the botany section of the Great Library and then set off for the Summer Salon for an afternoon treat. Frigga listened to Loki chattering excitedly about which flavour of warm milky drink he was going to ask for as they walked along, not quite hearing everything, but feeling rather better about the situation with the Greenbell than she had over the last few weeks. But then Loki said something which reminded her that even the best laid lies could eventually fray and trip their weaver up. It appeared that she had been so tired when she had gone to the library the other night that she had not covered her tracks quite so well as she may have thought and now it seemed she would have to go back to disguise what it was she had done.

 

“Móðir, it was really easy to find out why I was poorly today. Those books seemed to point out the right bits for me to look at.” Frigga’s ears perked up at Loki’s statement and she asked, “Why, my son? We have not seen those books before.”

“Well, someone had, and they were not very respectful of their use. They left golden dust all over the pages we were looking at!”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, a few things.
> 
> Thank you enormously for being patient about an update. Very sadly, my Nan passed away recently and it basically took all my mojo away. However, i would like to dedicate this story to her: somewhere she is now golden sparkles x
> 
> Infinity War trailer lands tomorrow, so quite a lot of excitement about that in this house!
> 
> And finally, this story and the themes running through it. When does a necessary lie start to become a monster that will devastate the oblivious party upon its revelation? How trapped must Frigga have felt in order to desecrate knowledge and to lie to her son in order to try to protect him in this way? And Loki seeing her golden signature - another indication of his budding magical talents and his ability to find the truth even though he will, himself, become an artful weaver of deceit.
> 
> I hope this finds you in good spirits, folks. Thank you for reading along - it really, truly makes me feel fantastic to know I can take you along for a Loki-tastic ride, even if it's only for ten minutes or so!  
> Palefire73  
> x


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